Heterojunctions formed from low-dimensional materials can result in photovoltaic and photodetection devices displaying exceptional physical properties and excellent performance. Herein, a mixed-dimensional van der Waals (vdW) heterojunction comprising a 1D n-type Ga-doped CdS nanowire and a 2D p-type MoTe2 flake is demonstrated; the corresponding photovoltaic device exhibits an outstanding conversion efficiency of 15.01% under illumination with white light at 650 µW cm-2 . A potential difference of 80 meV measured, using Kelvin probe force microscopy, at the CdS-MoTe2 interface confirms the separation and accumulation of photoexcited carriers upon illumination. Moreover, the photodetection characteristics of the vdW heterojunction device at zero bias reveal a rapid response time (<50 ms) and a photoresponsivity that are linearly proportional to the power density of the light. Interestingly, the response of the vdW heterojunction device is negligible when illuminated at 580 nm; this exceptional behavior is presumably due to the rapid rate of recombination of the photoexcited carriers of MoTe2 . Such mixed-dimensional vdW heterojunctions appear to be novel design elements for efficient photovoltaic and self-driven photodetection devices.
Keywords: Kelvin probe force microscopy; mixed-dimensional van der Waals heterojunction; p-n junction; self-driven photodetector.
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